Canva

What is Canva And Is It Free?

 

According to Wikipedia: 

 

Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. It is available on web and mobile, and integrates millions of images, fonts, templates and illustrations.

 

Canva solves a huge problem for online businesses like mine.  I struggle at times to find a suitable image for my articles. I’m no photographer so have to look for royalty free images on the free websites. These are great but there are times when you need an infographic with specific details on and those are simply not around.

 

We all know that images work exceptionally well on our websites, giving our readers an image rather than a long text to read. It has more impact on the reader and encourages them to stay on the website longer and in doing so are more likely to follow through with the call to action you have on the page. 

 

Canva opens up this option to us all with a free plan. It is more restricted than the standard and enterprise but nonetheless. its a very useful tool ! 

 

 

 

When you search for a specific photo, I searched for London, to see what would come up. It brings up a selection and I chose this one, but even once you have gotten onto the page, it offers you more images that are very relevant. Hundreds of thousands of free images … that alone is spectacular. 

What Exactly Does Canva Do?

On the free version, Canva gives you:

  • 8,000+ free templates
  • 100+ design types (social media posts, presentations, letters, and more)
  • Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphic

Every photo is super crisp and fresh – great quality to use on a website.. giving you the authority and caring appearance you want your readers to feel. 

Saying Canva has 8,000 free templates doesn’t really tell you anything, so this is just a snapshot of what they have. All of them are totally customisable for you and your specific business. There are templates for presentations/cards/business cards/invitations/brochures/logos/posters and most importantly  – infographics!

Facebook Posts 

Instagram Posts

Instagram Stories

        Flyers

How It Works

In the free version ( some obvious restrictions)  you are presented with all the various templates, grouped in their sections, showing the choice you have in design.

Choose A Template

Choose the template from the different sections for the type of material you want to produce. It will open in the dashboard.

Customise In The Dashboard

You can customise your material here using all the tools available in Canva. Ill show you below what this looks like.

Share The Document

There are dozens of ways to share your document, all are available to you from the dashboard. 

Relax

Easy as that ! You can embed the document into any article, print off, share it. 

Canva Dashboard

Dashboard

The dashboard is the heart of Canva. Your document, whether its a flyer, or invitation or infographic will have the same dashbouard to chose from. 

Photos

The dashboard has various tabs down the side that offer the variations of templates, photos, adding text, adding video, backgrounds. It allows for uploads of your own photos, images etc,

Elements

This is just a very small example of what the elements tab has to offer. I typed in medical and it has brought up a huge choice of icons, so many that I cant get them all on the screen.

Text

Great texts, headings, subheadings… so many choices of fonts ad expressions to use however you want to create your documents. 

Video

Great videos to embed and tons of choice. 

Backgrounds

Amazing backgrounds, with so much choice, there will be one that will suit the occasion. And if you have one that you desperately want to use, you can import it and use as a background. Want no background – you can do that too. 

Apps and Integrations

Canva offers various apps and integrations you can use along with a ton of places to share to/upload/email etc. 

Pricing

Canva Offers Three Plans 

Conclusion

Canva offers a comprehensive platform for the creation of a multitude of designs, for almost any occaision beit creating a logo for your new online business  or an infographic for inclusion into your latest blog. Canva is robust and intuitive, which I found straightforward and a pleasure to use. Try it out for free here  – Canva.com

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